Author: Matthew Hooper
Grade Level: Eleventh
Course: Chemistry
Purpose of Unit
The purpose of this unit is for students to be introduced to the concept of Avagadro's number, the Mole. Any misconceptions about the definition of a Mole, i.e. Avagadro's number vs. the furry little rodent, will be cleared up on day one of the unit. Students will learn how this number is related to the substances on the periodic table as well as how to calculate the mass of a mole of any substance. They will discover that Avagadro's number is particularly useful when applied to chemical formulas and linear conversions. Students will also be exposed to the concept of percent composition of compounds and learn how to calculate empirical and molecular formulas. They will also apply their knowledge periodically throughout the unit by performing a two part laboratory exercise designed to reinforce the ideas of mole-mass relationships and percent composition.
Students will be assessed periodically throughout the unit via daily formative assessment (ability to do practice problems and answer questions), worksheets/homework assignments (problem sets and reading assignments), quizzes (conceptually and mathematically based), and a final test at the end of the unit which can be found below:
The formative, embedded, and sumative assessments have been incorporated into the lesson plans of the unit and can be found in the lesson sequence above (with the exception of the unit test).
Rationale
I am a firm believer in making connections in chemistry to everyday life situations, and in order to make the topics contained in this unit meaningful to my students I tried to apply as many as time would allow. Students are periodically asked question about concepts to make them think "outside the box" and not solely about the concept at hand (an example of this can be found in the opening of the Percent Composition lesson). By asking students questions that will require them to recall information from previous lessons their prior knowledge can be incorporated into the lesson being presented. A teacher's responsibility is to push students to perform outside of their zone of proximal development and to provide them enough scaffolding to do so. For example, by incorporating the idea of density into the lesson of Using Percent Composition as a Conversion Factor students are able to apply prior knowledge to a new concept. This does two things, it builds the students confidence and reinforces prior knowledge. It is for this reason that the lessons in this unit are designed to build on each other while incorporating laboratory exercises/authentic examples throughout to reinforce conceptual understanding. Students will be given a variety of examples for each concept presented. They will be assigned problems to do in class (and then later problems for homework) so that I will be able to assess their grasp of the concepts. Whenever applicable problems will be worded to incorporate an actual situation to show students why what they are learning is important and how it can be practically applied. Students will be assessed periodically throughout the unit via daily formative assessment (ability to do practice problems and answer questions), worksheets/homework assignments (problem sets and reading assignments), quizzes (conceptually and mathematically based), and a final test at the end of the unit.
Title: The Mole
Author: Matthew Hooper
Grade Level: Eleventh
Course: Chemistry
Purpose of Unit
The purpose of this unit is for students to be introduced to the concept of Avagadro's number, the Mole. Any misconceptions about the definition of a Mole, i.e. Avagadro's number vs. the furry little rodent, will be cleared up on day one of the unit. Students will learn how this number is related to the substances on the periodic table as well as how to calculate the mass of a mole of any substance. They will discover that Avagadro's number is particularly useful when applied to chemical formulas and linear conversions. Students will also be exposed to the concept of percent composition of compounds and learn how to calculate empirical and molecular formulas. They will also apply their knowledge periodically throughout the unit by performing a two part laboratory exercise designed to reinforce the ideas of mole-mass relationships and percent composition.Learning Performances and Standards
GLEs unpackedOutline, Concept Map, or other Graphical Representation of the Concepts Addressed in the Unit
Below is a scanned copy of the concept map for this unit:Lesson Sequence
Lesson 1 The Mole as a Measurement of MatterLesson 2 Day 1 Mole-Mass Relationships
Lesson 2 Day 2 Mole-Volume Relationships
Lesson 3 Day 1 Percent Composition
Lesson 3 Day 2 Using Percent Composition as a Conversion Factor
Lesson 3 Day 3 Calculating Empirical and Molecular Formulas
Laboratory Exercise - Making Cents of Penny Composition
Assessment Plan
Students will be assessed periodically throughout the unit via daily formative assessment (ability to do practice problems and answer questions), worksheets/homework assignments (problem sets and reading assignments), quizzes (conceptually and mathematically based), and a final test at the end of the unit which can be found below:The formative, embedded, and sumative assessments have been incorporated into the lesson plans of the unit and can be found in the lesson sequence above (with the exception of the unit test).
Rationale
I am a firm believer in making connections in chemistry to everyday life situations, and in order to make the topics contained in this unit meaningful to my students I tried to apply as many as time would allow. Students are periodically asked question about concepts to make them think "outside the box" and not solely about the concept at hand (an example of this can be found in the opening of the Percent Composition lesson). By asking students questions that will require them to recall information from previous lessons their prior knowledge can be incorporated into the lesson being presented. A teacher's responsibility is to push students to perform outside of their zone of proximal development and to provide them enough scaffolding to do so. For example, by incorporating the idea of density into the lesson of Using Percent Composition as a Conversion Factor students are able to apply prior knowledge to a new concept. This does two things, it builds the students confidence and reinforces prior knowledge. It is for this reason that the lessons in this unit are designed to build on each other while incorporating laboratory exercises/authentic examples throughout to reinforce conceptual understanding. Students will be given a variety of examples for each concept presented. They will be assigned problems to do in class (and then later problems for homework) so that I will be able to assess their grasp of the concepts. Whenever applicable problems will be worded to incorporate an actual situation to show students why what they are learning is important and how it can be practically applied. Students will be assessed periodically throughout the unit via daily formative assessment (ability to do practice problems and answer questions), worksheets/homework assignments (problem sets and reading assignments), quizzes (conceptually and mathematically based), and a final test at the end of the unit.F08 Unit Plan Eval - Matt H